Apple has saved $2.7 billion in tax by booking profits in Singapore, according to new disclosures that show the city-state has overtaken Ireland as the iPhone maker’s biggest tax shelter.
The figure comes from an analysis of Apple’s latest annual filing, which shows the company routed up to $50 billion in profits through Singapore in its most recent financial year. The saving exceeds the $2.6 billion the company is estimated to have saved through its Irish arrangements over the same period.
The shift marks a significant change in how the world’s most valuable company manages its international tax bill. For decades Ireland was the centrepiece of Apple’s offshore structure, but Singapore has quietly grown into the larger hub as the company reshaped its affairs.
Apple’s annual report, filed with the US securities regulator on 3 November, gives an unusually detailed picture of where the company pays tax. It sold $479 billion of goods and services in the year to September, made $159 billion of profit before tax, and paid $34.6 billion of tax in cash.
Of that cash tax bill, $19 billion went to the United States, $5 billion to Ireland and $3.3 billion to Singapore, with a further $1.7 billion paid to US state and local governments. On an accounting basis, Apple’s effective tax rate was 17 per cent.
The detail is available because of a new US accounting rule requiring large companies to name any country that receives 5 per cent or more of the income tax they pay. Ireland took 14 per cent of everything Apple paid worldwide, and Singapore 9 per cent.
The filing also shows a top-up charge in Singapore under the new 15 per cent global minimum tax, a sign that even low-tax jurisdictions are now collecting more from multinationals than they once did.
Apple’s Irish arrangements have been under scrutiny for more than a decade. In September 2024, the European Court of Justice confirmed a European Commission order requiring the company to pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland for the years 2003 to 2014, after finding it had received unlawful state aid through tax rulings.
The $2.7 billion saving figure is the Financial Times’ calculation from Apple’s filings, and the company has not publicly disputed it. What the numbers make clear is that, even as global tax rules tighten, the geography of Apple’s tax planning is moving — from Dublin to Singapore.
Sources: Financial Times — “Apple saves $2.7bn in taxes by booking profits in Singapore” (https://www.ft.com/); The Wall Street Journal — “Apple Paid Almost 5% of U.S. Corporate Taxes Last Year” (https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-sp-500-nasdaq-11-03-2026/card/apple-paid-almost-5-of-u-s-corporate-taxes-last-year-hHHDYpFt0RTns6tiWXMt); Apple Inc. Form 10-K, filed 3 November 2026.
Note: The featured image is a file photo of Apple’s store at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, not of the company’s tax offices.
